Pur et Simple

Ok, so posting every day isn't realistic!  Here is an update on the Advent days.

Day 3:  Decorate it! In addition to our “big tree”, we have a couple of little Christmas trees.  My favorite one has little shells on it. {Looks like one fell off the center of the bow...oops.  I'll have to replace that.}
 

The other one is plain and is perfect for a child’s room.   Some years we have kept it simple and sweet and only strung it with popcorn garland.  Other years we have put small ornaments on; that is what the small children did.   This year it is in the little girls' room, on top of the dresser {away from little Mary’s curious, chubby fingers.}

 

Day 4:  Give it!  This card encourages giving a gift to the teachers in your life.   Dan and Hannah made a yummy treat for our piano teacher.   {I don’t think he reads this blog, so I think I’m safe to spill it…} chocolate dipped pretzel sticks.   

Day 5:  This week is crazy busy with outside-the-home activities.    Even though tomorrow {December 6^th} is technically St. Nicholas Day {not to be confused with Santa Claus!} we will hang our stockings today.   Stockings are a very fun tradition in our home.  Our first Christmas together, Eric and I had nothing by the way of Christmas decorations and hardly any money to buy them.  He was so sweet.  He found enough money to buy two knit stockings and he embroidered our names on them.   That man has the most tender heart.  

 

Our tradition has been to put their stockings at the foot of their bed, after they have gone to sleep on Christmas Eve.  They know that when they wake up on Christmas morning they can open them.   This "tradition" started when our older children were really little.  This kept them busy and bought us a little more sleep time after a late night of toy assembly or last minute wrapping.   Now, it’s just tradition.  We do it this way every year and the kids count on it!  Early Christmas morning, they usually gather all together in one of their rooms and open them up.  The stockings are filled with the whimsical, the practical, the useful, and usually the savory and the sweet too.